Another day in paradise
by vrskaandrea
Summary: A background story of the angel Anael.


**This was inspired by Phil Collins and his song "Another day in paradise". For complete experience, I would suggest listening to the song before reading, and maybe even during the last part as well. Enjoy!**

* * *

Sister Jo, or rather Anael was cleaning up after yet another healing session, swaying her hips to some music that came from the radio as she counted the money with a smile on her face. Soon, she would have enough to buy that little house on the outskirts of the town. She might have to come back to town after to keep with these sessions as it was her only way of income. She didn't quite know how to do anything else.

Well, that wasn't really true, she knew how to do a lot of stuff. She had to learn to do a lot of different things because she constantly changed jobs back when she was in Heaven. She just didn't quite fit in, so they kept moving her around.

First she was on the task of keeping track of deceased souls named Jacob. Not a lot of young souls, mostly old geezers who would grab her but if she had a vessel, if she wasn't just a pile of smoke. Yes, that is how important she was. So important she wasn't even allowed to take a vessel.

Anyway, after a century they moved her from that job to another one. Third assistant to an executive director of Soul placement. Basically, carry papers and fetch coffee. If the angels drank coffee.

On one occasion, as she was carrying piles upon piles of paperwork, she noticed there was one inconsistency. See, in Heaven, souls are divided by their name, then by date of birth etc. She noticed they were placing Cathrines with Kathys and she thought it would be easier, more systematic if they split them into two separate groups. But when she presented her idea to the director, he stared at her blankly at first and then said he would consider it. He never did.

After a while, she put in a request for transfer and she was granted a new task. Divine supernatural activity on Earth. Basically, she was tasked to look for God or anything that would indicate he was on Earth. The task consisted of hours upon hours of scanning the Earth, watching from high above. One day something interesting caught her eye, but after her previous experience, she was reluctant to try. Maybe she could ask around first...

The idea of facial recognition was shut down immediately with a laugh. It was God, he could make himself up to look like anyone. And even when she tried to explain that the system of elimination that would be put into effect along with it, eliminating every soul they had on their account, leaving only the supernatural ones unidentified, it still got laughed at.

The next day she was transferred to Baby Monitoring. Meaning the birth and creation of new souls. The most boring and disgusting job ever. Watching humans giving birth, all those disgusting fluids leaking everywhere, blood and flesh coming out, the women in pain beyond belief, but with smiles on their faces. What, were they masochists? And of course then there was puke and smelly diapers and poop and ugh... Just disgusting.

There were rare, really rare moments when the child would fall asleep and the things went quiet, really quiet and peaceful and those moments... They would always make her feel strange. Make her eyes glued to the kid, watching it sleep and it would put her in some state of tranquility, some sort of a trance and hours would pass within seconds.

Back to reality. This was close to bliss she was going to get. The little house, her own place on Earth. Maybe one day she will get a job here. With this healer business, she already felt like she was fitting in more then she ever did in Heaven. She was more at home here then she ever was up there. Maybe she could try and go to school, get a degree, become a nurse... She certainly had that healing touch.

She smiled at her thoughts and placed the money in her purse. Just as she was about to close it, a song came up on the radio, a song that always sent her back in time, sent her to that moment when she met him, and when she started feeling for the first time. It would have been a happy memory, it would, it should feel nice, but it just made her go back to that day, that dreadful day she lost everything.

She met Ezekiel on the Baby Monotoring job and soon found out he was a lot like her, unable to find his place in the vastness of Heaven. He was just another angel, another pile of divine light, without form, without a vessel. But there was just something about him, about the way he shone, that made her want to be around him more. And with each passing day, she saw more of him, meet him and stuck around to talk to him a little while longer between their shifts. One day, he even stayed through half of her shift. Time just passed by.

One think she never understood about him was his affection for humans. Everything about them fascinated him, he found their every act beautiful. Sure, some things were, but not all. Certainly not the torture they endured in bed, having intercourse while the baby was sleeping. How can something that makes them scream and yell be good and beautiful?

But then six days passed and no trace of him. There was some sort of a commotion up in Heaven and the only reason she knew about it was because it involved six-month old babies, those that were just the age when the Heavenly monitoring ceased. Someone picked up on the activity by accident, the paper work for the kid wasn't done right. There was a lot of rumors, some talked about demons and demonic blood, some spoke of grace, a lot sounded like nonsense. Anael just kept her head down, hoping to run into Ezekiel, not really caring about what was happening down there.

She was starting to loose hope she would ever see him again. She knew he used to be a warrior, a soldier, but he also told her he wanted out, he wanted a different job. Maybe he was called to a battle? Maybe he died on the battle field? She flinched, not just at the thought, but what it meant for her. Why did that hurt? Why did a mere thought of him not existing any more hurt? Was that pinch in her chest hurt or something else?

Then, on day six, she heard footsteps approaching her space. She didn't like that and she found herself to be a bit scared by that sound. Because that meant someone was coming. Someone important enough to have a vessel. And they were coming straight toward her. *

She kept her eyes low, seemingly they were focused on an infant she was observing before and she shivered when she heard the footsteps come to a halt, right behind her. She knew she was supposed to turn around and greet her superior, but she just couldn't. She couldn't face them and the possibility of another transfer. She couldn't face the possibility of never seeing Ezekiel again.

"Anael..." a wondering voice came towards her, his voice and a jolt shot up through her entire system as she heard his lips say her name. She snapped around and she gasped. Before her stood Ezekiel, in a vessel that would be considered breathtaking by human standards.

He wasn't that tall, not slim too much, nor fat. Athletic built, it was obvious under the nice light blue suit. His face was perfectly framed, symmetric with a strong chin and emphasized cheek bones. His dark brown hair spiked up, but it was his eyes, his hazel eyes that gave out the smile of seeing the angel in front of him.

Still no matter how handsome he was, she didn't even notice that. All she saw was the angel inside, the one she was missing, the one she hoped to see again, the one for, she knew in that moment, she was feeling something. Something she was yet to explain to herself, yet to understand. She just knew the feeling was there.

The vessel smiled brightly at her and they just stood like for a few minutes, frozen in a spot, just looking at one another. Finally, he extended his hand to her, and the bright from of her hand reached to touch him, but his skin, his hand, if felt strange, it felt wrong. It didn't feel any different than any other surface and she didn't like it. She could see him smiling and enjoying the touch and she wondered what that felt like, what it felt like for him.

"I apologize for being away, I was tasked with a special mission. But I am here now." he said with slight tremble in his voice as his breathing hitched. The sensors of his vessel must have been overwhelmed, because she could feel something radiating off of him, she just didn't know what it was.

"Will... Will you be staying?" Anael asked with a hopeful voice.

"I will. I might have to go back to the special mission every now and then, but I will return every time." He replied and added almost shyly "I promise."

This made her feel some strange warmth inside, and as odd as it felt, it also felt nice. It made her feel good, it made her feel like... Like she was finally home.

And as the instrumental at the begging of the song echoed through the empty auditorium of an old church, Anael wished she could just go and shut the damn thing off. She wished it didn't make her unable to move, she wished it didn't make her feel those awful feelings again... She wished she never did what he asked. Because maybe then, she wouldn't have to feel like this. Maybe it would have been different. Maybe she would still have her home.

She remembered them sneaking touches, she remember those strange feelings she had growing stronger every day. She remembered how he would look at her free angelic form, she remembered the smile on his face every time her ghostly hand would reach out to touch his. She remembered him bringing her some trinkets, silly little stones. Circles with those stones in them, or chains that sparked in the sunlight.

She remembered him asking her to take a vessel. She remembered how he promised he would stay there and wait for her to find the perfect one, he promised none of her supervisors wouldn't dare say a thing, not with him there. He promised she would understand more once she was in a corporal form, he promised he would show her the beauty of it.

And when she asked would he show her how a kiss felt, he promised he would.

So she did what he asked. She went down to Earth and started searching for a vessel. It took some time, no human that could hear her plead, that could withstand it thought it was real. They all thought it was just their imagination, their mind playing trick on them. She flinched when she heard a cry of a young soul and she hurried to it, drawn by the need that her job posed, drawn by the pain of a soul so young it should be in this agony.

She found a woman, a young woman, wrapped in old clothes, dirty and hurt, cold and scared. She wasn't out in the cold that long, maybe a month or two, but it was apparent she was homeless and alone. Well, almost alone... She had a baby in her arms, wrapped tightly so it wouldn't feel the cold.

But the baby felt the cold. The baby felt the lack of the mother's milk as her more had none to give. The baby was crying and so was the woman.

"_She calls out to the man on the street  
'Sir, can you help me?  
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,  
Is there somewhere you can tell me?'_

_He walks on, doesn't look back  
He pretends he can't hear her  
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street  
Seems embarrassed to be there"_

She might have thought she was helping back then, but she knew now this wasn't the act of kindness she did. This was just the lesser of two evils, the choice she presented the mother. Say Yes and she will help her baby. Say Yes and she will heal it. Say Yes and her baby gets to live a full life.

After cleaning up a bit and taking the clothes she found in a random house (yeah she knew now, braking and entering was against the law), she stood at the porch looking up at the nightly sky filled with stars. Smiling, she let the eagerness to see him fill her with anticipation, to set her hand on his, to feel his touch. To feel his lips.

But then the worst thing imaginable happened.

The stars grew larger and silent screams filled the night. And when she realized what was happening, it was too late.

She flapped her wings and started her flight, to go find him, to reach him, but she barely made it a few miles, she barely lifted before she crash landed into a swamp. Not that she cared right now. She tried flapping her wings but it was like they weren't there anymore. Not that she cared right now. Not that she let herself feel the pain of the falling feathers, of one pair of her limbs burning up and almost like falling off. Not that she cared right now. And as she crawled out of that swamp to get to him, as she swiped her hand to remove the mud off her face, managing to smear it even more, the only thing on her mind was him.

And as the chorus of the song kicked in, a tear rolled down her cheek and she clenched to that purse for dear life...

_"Oh think twice, it's another day for you and me in paradise  
Oh think twice, 'cause it's just another day for you,  
You and me in paradise, think about it"_

And she managed to dig herself out of the swamp, and she managed to stomp out of the forest and she managed to reach a skirt of a town. But it was dead night, dead silent, all but one man looking at her with confusion and disgust.

_"She calls out to the man on the street  
He can see she's been crying  
She's got blisters on the soles of her feet  
She can't walk but she's trying_

_Oh think twice, 'cause it's another day for you and me in paradise  
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,  
You and me in paradise, think about it"_

But she knew he can't help her. She knows no human can. No one was there, no one out there to help, to assist her in finding him, and she needed to find him,she needed to know, even though, deep down, she already knew.

_"Oh Lord, is there nothing more anybody can do  
Oh Lord, there must be something you can say_

_You can tell from the lines on her face  
You can see that she's been there  
Probably been moved on from every place  
Cause she didn't fit in there_

_Oh think twice, 'cause another day for you and me in paradise  
Oh think twice, it's just another day for you,  
You and me in paradise, just think about it, think about it"_

And she ran. And she kept running, running despite how much her legs hurt, running despite how her souls bled, running despite having no where to run to. Tears streaming down her face and a huge hole digging itself in her chest, making her loose her breath with each sob. It was gone, all gone. Her hope, her love, her home. All gone. He was gone.

_"It's just another day for you and me in paradise  
It's just another day for you and me in paradise, paradise  
It's just another day for you and me in paradise  
It's just another day for you and me in paradise, paradise"_

And no matter how much money she had, and no matter the little house she would settle in, nothing could ever replace that feeling, nothing could ever replace her true home. He was gone. Forever.

_"It's just another day for you and me  
It's just another day for you and me  
It's just another day for you and me in paradise  
In paradise"_


End file.
